Author's Note: Originally I was going to be elaborate and have this story be something tied to River, but I'm tired and I just want to write Simon and Kaylee and not have this whole drawn out kidnapping arc, so I'm going to stick with something a little simpler.

Simon was so sure that Kaylee would be back on Serenity that he made sure to take the extra extra long way home. He had the sneaking suspicion that she would have no interest in seeing or being anywhere near him, and considering how difficult it was to avoid others on a space ship, he thought he'd at least give her the grace of some distance.

There were certain moments in Simon's life that he regretted more than others. Most of them had to do with River and not realizing something was wrong and rescuing her sooner. Sometimes, usually when Mal was being particularly irksome, he even regretted the day he joined the Firefly crew.

But today, all of the space in his head used for Regretting Things was being taking up by replaying his conversation with Kaylee, over and over and over again. He'd blown it. He'd ruined everything. Him and his lack of social filter had screwed up one too many times. Kaylee would never let him back in again. There'd be no more laughing until they cried in the kitchen long after everyone had gone to bed. There'd be no more moral support in the med bay or the engine room while they completed their respective duties. No more stares caught, embarrassingly, from across a meeting. No more having each others backs in team arguments.

Why was it that it was only after he lost something that he realized how important it was? How important she was?

After giving Kaylee all the space he thought he could, Simon made his way back to Serenity. He found Mal, Inara and Preacher in the kitchen, returned from their sightseeing, Wash and Zoey having stayed aboard the ship for some well-deserved private couple time.

Mal glanced up from his data pad, scanning Simon's dejected form and then the spaces around and behind him. "Where's little Kaylee?" he said instead of hello.

Simon shook his head. "She's not back yet?" he asked, feeling worse than ever. He'd messed up so profoundly that Kaylee didn't even feel okay coming back to her own ship.

"Wasn't she with you?" Mal shot back, getting to his feet and placing a hand flat on the table.

"She… was," Simon told him awkwardly. He didn't want to talk about what had happened with anyone, but particularly not Mal, who loved Kaylee like a sister and hated him like a cockroach. "And… then she wasn't anymore."

"You lost her? How do you lose Kaylee?!"

Inara stood as well, placing a hand on Mal's back. His confrontational posture softened immediately, but he was still glaring at Simon.

"I'm sure Kaylee is fine," Inara said. "River and Jayne have yet to return, either, and it's not as if we're in any rush." She stepped around the table and across the room to Simon, who was trying to hide behind the dinner prep counter. Mindful of Mal's presence not far away, she lowered her voice. "Did you two get in another fight?"

Simon's mouth curved downward and he stared at his fingers to avoid meeting her gaze. "Not a fight so much as me hurting her without meaning to. Again."

Inara sighed and patted his back. "She'll come around, Simon, she always does. I'm sure she's just taking this time to think things through and cool off." She tilted her head. "Perhaps you should take this time to figure out exactly what it is in you, and exactly what it is in her, that leads to this pattern? I know you don't mean to hurt her feelings, and yes, Kaylee is rather sensitive about a certain few things, but still. Both of you deserve better than this."

Simon nodded, gulping a little. He hated seeing Kaylee cry more than just about any of the horrors he'd witnessed in the 'verse thus far… and there'd been quite a few. How could he change his behavior—their interaction—in order to make it so he stopped saying the wrong thing so frequently?

He wandered out of the kitchen, head fuzzy. Maybe, just maybe, he spent so much of his time with Kaylee focused on not saying the right things that all he had left were the wrong ones?

"Bang bang," River repeated, over and over again as she knelt in the dust. "Bang bang. Bang bang. Bang bang bang bang-"

In front of her, Kaylee lay in the street, writhing in pain. The first bullets had missed her and the girls had started running for cover. Then, Kaylee had spotted their assailant: a man with colored-ink tattoos covering every inch of his body, his clothes made up of bright pieces of leather. It soon became clear that they weren't even the target; the man was firing on the intersection at random, sending tourists screaming and sprinting in every direction.

All of chaos had flooded River's mind until she started screaming, too, hands clamped over her ears. She started twirling in a circle like she was doing ballet, skirt wheeling out in a cloth ring around her legs.

"River!" Kaylee shrieked, trying to pull her to safety. "We need to go!"

The man kept shooting, his bullets ricocheting off of the stone buildings. A few passerbys were struck and collapsed into bleeding heaps. Kaylee knew that the right thing—the Serenity thing—to do would be to take the man out, but she was scared and caught off guard and weaponless, and besides, she had River to think of. So, when River refused to listen to her, she grabbed her shoulders to stop her spinning and gave her a good shake. "River!"

"Bang," River gasped out, and a bullet tore through Kaylee's back.

She crumpled like dry sand, falling face-first into the street. Her body was immediately white-hot with pain, the bullet hole burning like the sun itself had found its way inside.

At least she was still conscious. The man was continuing to shoot, River anticipating each bullet a second before he fired with another muttered "bang," and Kaylee knew that the other girl didn't have the presence of mind to get them out of there.

"River-" she gasped, trying to push herself up only to let out a cry of pain and collapse back to the dirt. She'd been shot before, back that first day she'd met Simon, but somehow she'd forgotten just how much agony it caused.

Simon. Oh, how she wished Simon was there, like he had been that first time. There to ask her if she could move her feet, there to make her feel like everything would be fine.

Truthfully, she didn't remember that afternoon all that much, but he'd saved her life and that was the important bit. Or maybe the important bit was that he could save her life again, if only she could reach him.

"River…" she tried again, groaning. A cough worked its way up her chest and suddenly Kaylee tasted metallic. She was still on her stomach, practically eating dirt, but now she could see splatters of red on the ground in front of her mouth.

Oh God, she was gonna die.

"River!" she yelled, gasping for air. "River, we- the ship-"

"The ship," River repeated, darting to her feet. "The ship!"

And before Kaylee could do or say anything, River had sprinted off down the street.

No.

"Don't… leave me…" Kaylee whispered, stretching a numb hand towards her retreating back. The air shimmered in the heat, and River's galloping form turned into a gazelle, erect and purposeful, growing smaller and smaller.

Then she turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

And… sight. Sight disappeared, too.

Author's Note: And that's a fancy way of saying "everything went black." XP